The Tides of War is about two men, Lenny Dawson and Frank Billups. Lenny is a teenager and Frank is his Sunday school teacher. Unusual circumstance bring them together again during WW II flying B-17 bombers. Their trials and exploits during WWII bring both to Germany after they are shot down. They pass themselves off as German citizens and are taken into the German Luftwaffe. Both hope to return to their base in England by flying away in a German plane. While in Germany both meet German women and a love story develops for both. The Luftwaffe quickly learn that they are superb pilots and they are promoted and sent to the eastern front where they engage the Russians. Both eventually fly a plane back to England before the war ends. Dawson is reassigned with his American unit and is shot down once more over Germany near the end of the war. He is put in a German prison that the Russians later capture. He is then sent to Siberia where he makes a daring escape nearly two years after his captured. Billups' service with the Luftwaffe is discovered by the CIA and they want to charge him with treason. Only his commanding general is able to save him. After the war they return to America and both apply and receive jobs flying commercial airliners for Global Air. However, over the Caribbean Ocean they crash land in the ocean and are set adrift. They eventually land on an island that has been a secret base for German U-boats and are received warmly by the natives. The story concludes with Dawson and Billups helping the natives develop the island as a resort.

THE TIDES OF WAR

By WILLIAM POST

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 William Post
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-1963-5

Chapter One

A REUNION

Leonard (Lenny) Dawson was thirteen when his mother was killed in an automobile accident. A neighbor had asked her to pick up her son from his piano lesson as her car was in the shop getting new brakes. On their return a truck blew a tire and hit them head on killing both instantly. Both families were devastated. It was Gilbert and Hilda Getz's only child. The year was 1936.

Lenny had an older brother, Ralph, Jr. who was a sophomore in college. His father ran an engineering firm where he spent about fourteen hours a day because he couldn't afford to hire more help. The country was in a depression and work was sparse.

Hilda missed her boy so badly that she would invite Lenny to come over after school to have cookies or some other goodies she had baked especially for him. Lenny realized that Hilda missed her boy terribly and always went over and talked to her as he realized how much she needed him. He liked Hilda and their fondness for one another grew as Lenny needed her also.

Hilda and her husband, Gil, spoke German in their home as they had immigrated to America just after their marriage. Hilda wanted Lenny to speak German so she began teaching him that language. Lenny thought of it as a game and really enjoyed learning the language. In just a few weeks they were conversing in German.

New Braunfels High School offered two courses in German in which Lenny took advantage. It helped him immeasurably in his conversations with Hilda. Many Germans had immigrated to Texas and a good number of these students took the German language courses as they were easy for them. This made the course fairly difficult because so many of the students were already fluent in German. Their teacher was a German immigrant also who had taught German in Germany and demanded much from his students.

Lenny studied avidly and Hilda helped him so he was soon as proficient as the other students in his German class. It was very common for students to speak German with their friends in the high school as so many of the students were first generation Germans where German was spoken in their homes. Lenny took advantage of this also and spoke German with his German friends.

Hilda's husband, Gilbert, was an Electrical Contractor and was also fond of Lenny. He had a difficult time with communication and saw that having Lenny with him, particularly at meetings, helped him greatly. Lenny began helping him after school and on Saturdays. He even took time from school when Gil had a preconstruction conference before a contract started. Gil taught Lenny the basics of wiring houses and soon Lenny was proficient at it. Gil liked the fact that he could talk to Lenny in German as he had his son. The two of them soon became a great team. Gil paid Lenny a handsome wage and Lenny saved nearly all of it.

Lenny didn't enter into many ex-curricular activities of the school because he knew Hilda and Gil needed him, but he did play basketball. Both Gil and Hilda would come see him play and many people thought they were Lenny's parents.

Gil and Hilda went to the Lutheran Church on Sundays, but Lenny went with his father to the Methodist Church. Many times Lenny's father would skip church because of his work, but Lenny never did because of his Sunday school teacher, Frank Billups. Lenny liked Frank as he made the many stories of the Bible come alive. Frank always had a good lesson and drove home the message he wanted them to learn with the Biblical stories. Through Frank's teaching, Lenny learned what Christ had done for him in coming to earth to die for his sins. This made a deep impression on Lenny as he could tell that Frank lived the life that Jesus wanted him to live.

Lenny's most profound impression was when Frank quoted what Saint Francis of Assisi had once said: "That all of us must tell everyone we know about Jesus even if we have to use words." This stuck with Lenny the rest of his life as now the old axiom, "Actions speak louder than words," meant something.

After Sunday school one day, Lenny asked Frank about his family. Frank was silent a few seconds then told him his wife had left him some years back. She had fallen in love with a salesman and left without taking Frank Jr. Frank said he blamed himself for it, because he hadn't paid enough attention to her.

Frank said, "Lenny, marriage is like a garden. You must take special care with it. You must nourish ,water it and keep it free from weeds if you expect it to be fruitful. When someone is precious to you, do not neglect them or take them for granted. That's what I did and it cost me. My son grew up knowing very little about his mother. After she left I took special care of Junior. I was both mother and father to him. I could see why my wife left me. It was from neglect. I swore I would not do that to Junior. My parents had told me the Christian way of life was the only life if I wanted to be truly happy, so I decided I would include Christ in everything I did. It changed my life significantly and I have been much happier. Now that Junior is in college I really don't have anything but my work and you kids. It has left a large void."

"What do you do for a living, Frank?" Lenny asked.

"I'm an aviation mechanic and give flying lessons on the side, but other than my job and teaching this Sunday school class I really don't have much of a life."

Lenny felt Frank's loneliness as he had had that same feeling before Hilda and Gil reached out to him. Lenny said, "Why don't I be your friend? I have Sundays free and I would love to see where you work and see the airplanes."

That afternoon Frank took Lenny to the airport and gave him his first ride in an airplane. Lenny was bitten by the flying bug and told Frank that he wanted to learn to fly.

Lenny said, "Now Frank, I want to pay just like any other student. I have saved my money and can afford it."

Frank said, "Okay, but I will give you a discount because you are just fourteen."

Lenny was a natural and read everything Frank gave him about flying rules and regulations. This aided him to pass the ground school course making a hundred per cent on the test. He couldn't obtain a license because he was under the age of sixteen. However, Frank and Lenny's friendship and their flying continued until the middle of Lenny's senior year in high school when Frank had to quit his job and go home to help his father. Lenny had just turned sixteen.

Frank's father owned a large farm in Nebraska. When his father developed heart trouble he asked Frank to come home and help him. Frank despised farming, but complied with his father's wishes and went home to Nebraska.

His father died five months after Frank arrived. Frank was then glad he had that time with his Father. During their time together his father explained all his finances. The farm was paid for and his father had accumulated a considerable amount of wealth which he left entirely to Frank. This helped Frank as Frank Jr. was in his last year of college and his expenses were considerable.

Frank Jr. graduated from college in the spring of 1939 and on Frank's advice he applied for officer's candidate school that the Army Air Corps now offered. One of Frank's passions was keeping up with world affairs. He subscribed to many periodicals and read all he could. With war brewing in Europe Frank knew it would only be a matter of time before America entered the war. This would give Frank Jr. a leg up on the vast number of...